Device system and method for new radio (nr) communication

ABSTRACT

The disclosure relates to a communication device, a base station and respective integrated circuits and methods for a communication device and a base station. The communication device comprises a transceiver which, in operation, receives, from a base station, a hopping pattern indicator, a hopping pattern being an order of a plurality of bandwidth parts by which a signal is to be received or transmitted in a plurality of transmission time intervals, TTIs, a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physical resource block. The communication device further comprises circuitry which, in operation, determines a hopping pattern to be applied based on the hopping pattern indicator. The transceiver, in operation, further receives or transmits the signal in the plurality of TTIs according to the determined hopping pattern.

BACKGROUND Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to transmission and reception, devicesand methods in communication systems, such as 3GPP (3^(rd) GenerationPartnership Project) communication systems.

Description of the Related Art

Currently, the 3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) works at thenext release (Release 15) of technical specifications for the nextgeneration cellular technology, which is also called fifth generation(5G). At the 3GPP Technical Specification Group (TSG) Radio Accessnetwork (RAN) meeting #71 (Gothenburg, March 2016), the first 5G studyitem, “Study on New Radio Access Technology” involving RAN1, RAN2, RAN3and RAN4 was approved and is expected to become the Release 15 work itemthat defines the first 5G standard. The aim of the study item is todevelop a “New Radio (NR)” access technology (RAT), which operates infrequency ranges up to 100 GHz and supports a broad range of use cases,as defined during the RAN requirements study (see e.g., 3GPP TR 38.913“Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation AccessTechnologies”, current version 14.3.0 available at www.3gpp.org).

The IMT-1010 (International Mobile Telecommunications-2020)specifications by the International Telecommunication Union broadlyclassified three major scenarios for next generation of mobilecommunications: enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), massive Machine-typeCommunications (mMTC), and Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications(URLLC). In the work item of 3GPP in Release 15, the recently completedPhase I is mainly focused on eMBB and low-latency communications that iscovered by introducing non-slot based scheduling. In Phase II, thereliability aspect of the URLLC will be covered, which will be laterfollowed by mMTC related work. For example, eMBB deployment scenariosmay include indoor hotspot, dense urban, rural, urban macro and highspeed; URLLC deployment scenarios may include industrial controlsystems, mobile health care (remote monitoring, diagnosis andtreatment), real time control of vehicles, wide area monitoring andcontrol systems for smart grids; mMTC may include the scenarios withlarge number of devices with non-time critical data transfers such assmart wearables and sensor networks.

BRIEF SUMMARY

One non-limiting and exemplary embodiment facilitates providing reliablesignaling in a wireless communication system.

In one embodiment, the techniques disclosed here feature a communicationdevice for receiving or transmitting a signal from/to a base station ina wireless communication system in at least one of a plurality ofbandwidth parts, a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physicalresource block. The communication device comprises a transceiver which,in operation, receives, from the base station, a hopping patternindicator specifying a hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an orderof the plurality of bandwidth parts by which the signal is to bereceived or transmitted in a plurality of transmission time intervals,TTIs. The communication device comprises circuitry which, in operation,evaluates the hopping pattern indicator to determine the hoppingpattern. The transceiver, in operation, receives or transmits the signalin the plurality of TTIs according to the hopping pattern.

It should be noted that general or specific embodiments may beimplemented as a system, a method, an integrated circuit, a computerprogram, a storage medium, or any selective combination thereof.

Additional benefits and advantages of the disclosed embodiments willbecome apparent from the specification and drawings. The benefits and/oradvantages may be individually obtained by the various embodiments andfeatures of the specification and drawings, which need not all beprovided in order to obtain one or more of such benefits and/oradvantages.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of an exemplary architecture for a 3GPP NRsystem;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an exemplary user and control planearchitecture for the LTE eNB, NR gNB, and UE;

FIG. 3 is a schematic drawing showing usage scenarios of Massive MachineType Communications (mMTC) and Ultra Reliable and Low LatencyCommunications (URLLC)

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a communication device and a base station;

FIG. 5 is a schematic drawing of a bandwidth part hopping pattern for arepetition

FIG. 6 is a schematic drawing of a bandwidth part hopping pattern for aretransmission

FIG. 7 is a schematic drawing of a bandwidth part hopping patternsignaled in plural DCIs (downlink control information);

FIG. 8A is a flow chart of a method for receiving data and a method fortransmitting data on the downlink; and

FIG. 8B is a flow chart of a method for transmitting data and a methodfor receiving data on the uplink;

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The scope of URLCC with respect to reliability includes specification ofCQI (channel Quality Indicator) and MCS (Modulation and Coding Scheme)table designs targeting high reliability. N separate CQI table(s) aresupported for URLLC. In particular, the value of N is downselectedbetween 1 and 2. Two target BLERs (Block Error Rate) are supported forURLLC. RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling is used by the gNB(gNodeB, an exemplary name of the base station in NR corresponding tothe eNodeB (enhanced NodeB) of LTE (Long Term Evolution)) to select oneof the two target BLER. The configuration of the target BLER or CQItable is part of CSI (Channel State Information) report setting.

Further, if gains are identified, specified: first, definition of a newDCI (downlink control information) format (or new DCI formats) that hasa smaller DCI payload size than DCI format 0-0 and DCI format 1-0unicast data; second, for a given carrier, PDCCH (Physical DownlinkControl Channel) repetitions over same or multiple PDCCH monitoringoccasion(s) of the same or multiple CORESET (Configuration Resource Set)and search space, and, third, handling of UL (uplink) multiplexing oftransmission with different reliability requirements (including thepotential need for UL UE (user equipment) pre-emption).

The scope of reliability of URLLC described above is limited. However,the scope becomes wider and other aspects related to reliability areconsidered in future RAN1 discussions.

As presented in the background section, 3GPP is working at the nextrelease for the 5th generation cellular technology, simply called 5G,including the development of a new radio access technology (NR)operating in frequencies ranging up to 100 GHz. 3GPP has to identify anddevelop the technology components needed for successfully standardizingthe NR system timely satisfying both the urgent market needs and themore long-term requirements. In order to achieve this, evolutions of theradio interface as well as radio network architecture are considered inthe study item “New Radio Access Technology”. Results and agreements arecollected in the Technical Report TR 38.804 v14.0.0.

Among other things, there has been a provisional agreement on theoverall system architecture. The NG-RAN (Next Generation—Radio AccessNetwork) comprises gNBs, providing the NG-radio access user plane,SDAP/PDCP/RLC/MAC/PHY (Service Data Adaptation Protocol/Packet DataConvergence Protocol/Radio Link Control/Medium Access Control/Physical)and control plane, RRC (Radio Resource Control) protocol terminationstowards the UE. The NG-RAN architecture is illustrated in FIG. 1, basedon TS 38.300 v.15.0.0, section 4. The gNBs are interconnected with eachother by an Xn interface. The gNBs are also connected by a NextGeneration (NG) interface to the NGC (Next Generation Core), morespecifically to the AMF (Access and Mobility Management Function) (e.g.,a particular core entity performing the AMF) by the NG-C interface andto the UPF (User Plane Function) (e.g., a particular core entityperforming the UPF) by the NG-U interface.

Various different deployment scenarios are currently being discussed forbeing supported, as reflected, e.g., in 3GPP TR 38.801 v14.0.0. Forinstance, a non-centralized deployment scenario (section 5.2 of TR38.801; a centralized deployment is illustrated in section 5.4) ispresented therein, where base stations supporting the 5G NR can bedeployed. FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary non-centralized deploymentscenario and is based on FIG. 5.2.—1 of said TR 38.801, whileadditionally illustrating an LTE eNB as well as a user equipment (UE)that is connected to both a gNB and an LTE eNB. As mentioned before, thenew eNB for NR 5G may be exemplarily called gNB.

As also mentioned above, in 3^(rd) generation partnership project newradio (3GPP NR), three use cases are being considered that have beenenvisaged to support wide variety of services and applications byIMT-2020 (see Recommendation ITU-R M.2083: IMT Vision—“Framework andoverall objectives of the future development of IMT for 2020 andbeyond”, September 2015). The specification for the phase 1 of enhancedmobile-broadband (eMBB) has recently been concluded by 3GPP in December2017. In addition to further extending the eMBB support, the future workwould involve the standardization for ultra-reliable and low-latencycommunications (URLLC) and massive machine-type communications. FIG. 3(from the Recommendation ITU-R M.2083) illustrates some examples ofenvisioned usage scenarios for IMT for 2020 and beyond.

The URLLC use case has stringent requirements for capabilities such asthroughput, latency and availability and has been envisioned as one ofthe enablers for future vertical applications such as wireless controlof industrial manufacturing or production processes, remote medicalsurgery, distribution automation in a smart grid, transportation safety,etc. In the current WID (work item description) RP-172115, it is agreedto support the ultra-reliability for URLLC by identifying the techniquesto meet the requirements set by TR 38.913. The general URLLC requirementfor one transmission of a packet is 10⁻⁵ for 32 bytes with a user planeof 1 ms. From RAN1 perspective, reliability can be improved in a numberof possible ways. The current scope for improving the reliability iscaptured in RP-172817 that includes defining of separate CQI tables forURLLC, more compact DCI formats, repetition of PDCCH, etc. However, thescope may widen for achieving ultra-reliability as the NR becomes morestable and developed.

The use case of mMTC is characterized by a very large number ofconnected devices typically transmitting a relatively low volume ofnon-delay sensitive data. Devices may be low cost and to have a verylong battery life. Utilizing very narrow bandwidth parts is one possiblesolution to have power saving from UE perspective and enable longbattery life in an NR system.

As mentioned above, it is expected that the scope of reliability in NRbecomes wider. For example, one requirement to all the cases andespecially necessary for URLLC and mMTC is high reliability orultra-reliability. Several mechanisms can be considered to improve thereliability from radio perspective and network perspective. There arefew potential areas that can help improve the reliability. Among theseareas are compact control channel information, data/control channelrepetition, and diversity with respect to frequency, time and/or thespatial domain. These areas are applicable to reliability, regardless ofparticular communication scenarios.

In the following discussion, it is proposed to exploit the diversity infrequency and time by utilizing the concept of bandwidth part (BWP) andpropose related signaling mechanism in an efficient manner.

In this disclosure, utilization of frequency/time diversity forretransmission/repetition of DL/UL data to improve the reliability in NRis considered. It is proposed to use bandwidth part switching, e.g., forretransmission and repetition of data and control channels, to achievefrequency diversity gains and consequently improve reliability.Especially, when the BWP is narrow, the diversity gains within the BWPcould be very limited. In such cases, it can be quite useful to increasethe diversity gains by allowing hopping between BWPs.

As defined in the section 4.4.5 of TS 38.211 V15.0.0 (2017-12), abandwidth part (or carrier bandwidth part) is a contiguous set ofphysical resource blocks as defined in clause 4.4.4.3, selected from acontiguous subset of the common resource blocks defined in clause4.4.4.2 for a given numerology on a given carrier.

It is defined in the specification TS 38.211 V15.0.0 that a UE can beconfigured with up to four carrier bandwidth parts in the downlink witha single downlink carrier bandwidth part being active at a given time.The UE is not expected to receive PDSCH (Physical Downlink SharedChannel), PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel), CSI-RS (DownlinkReference Signals for Estimation of Channel State Information), or TRS(Tracking Reference Signals for fine time and frequency tracking ofchannel) outside an active bandwidth part.

It is further defined in the specification that a UE can be configuredwith up to four carrier bandwidth parts in the uplink with a singleuplink carrier bandwidth part being active at a given time. If a UE isconfigured with a supplementary uplink, the UE can in addition beconfigured with up to four carrier bandwidth parts in the supplementaryuplink with a single supplementary uplink carrier bandwidth part beingactive at a given time. The UE shall not transmit PUSCH or PUCCH outsidean active bandwidth part.

A numerology is defined by subcarrier spacing and cyclic prefix (CP). Aresource block is generally defined as 12 consecutive subcarriers in thefrequency domain. Physical resource blocks (PRB) are numbered within aBWP, the PRB numbering of for the BWP starting from 0.

The size of a BWP can vary from a minimum of 1 PRB to the maximum sizeof system bandwidth. Currently, up to four BWPs can be configured byhigher layer parameters for each DL (downlink) and UL (uplink), with asingle active downlink and uplink BWP in a given TTI (transmission timeinterval). However, the disclosure is not limited to the case defined inTS 38.211 of a UE being configured with up to four bandwidth parts. Thenumber of bandwidth parts may be greater than 4 in the uplink and/ordownlink. For example, a UE may be configured with 8 BWPs.

TTI (Transmission Time Interval) determines the timing granularity forscheduling assignment. One TTI is the time interval in which givensignals is mapped to the physical layer. The TTI length can vary from14-symbols (slot-based scheduling) to up to 2-symbols (non-slot basedscheduling). Downlink and uplink transmissions are specified to beorganized into frames (10 ms duration) consisting of 10 subframes (1 msduration). In slot-based transmission, a subframe, in return, is dividedinto slots, the number of slots being defined by thenumerology/subcarrier spacing and the specified values range between 10slots for a subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz to 320 slots for a subcarrierspacing of 240 kHz. The number of OFDM symbols per slot is 14 for normalcyclic prefix and 12 for extended cyclic prefix (see section 4.1(general frame structure), 4.2 (Numerologies), 4.3.1 (frames andsubframes) and 4.3.2 (slots) of the 3GPP TS 38.211 V15.0.0 (2017-12).However, transmission may also be non-slot based. In non slot-basedcommunication, the minimum length of a TTI may be 2 OFDM symbols.

The BWP concept in NR is to allow the dynamic configuration of arelatively small active bandwidth for smaller data packets, which allowspower saving for the UE because for a small active BWP the UE needs tomonitor less frequencies or use less frequencies for transmission.

In LTE technology, frequency hopping has been used in order to achievediversity gains and, as a result, to improve coverage and reliability.Frequency hopping is also being discussed as one of the potential way toimprove reliability for URLLC. In NR, the frequency hopping within anactive BWP is already agreed to be used for PUSCH (Physical UplinkShared Channel) and PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel). Thisdisclosure proposes ways to further exploit the diversity, and combinewith other mechanisms such as repetition and retransmission to improvethe overall reliability.

The active bandwidth part for a user equipment (e.g., the bandwidth partto be used by a UE for transmission and reception of signals in a TTI),can be switched among the configured BWPs. For instance, depending oncurrent needs, the active BWP may be switched to a larger BWP, or, inorder to save battery power for the UE, to a smaller BWP. This ispossible by dynamical indication in the DCI of the active BWP to be usedin the next TTI. A DCI transports downlink and uplink schedulinginformation (e.g., resource assignments and/or grants), requests foraperiodic CQI reports, or uplink power control commands for one cell andone RNTI. DCI coding includes information element multiplexing, CRC(Cyclic Redundancy Check) attachment, channel coding, and rate matching.A DCI carries transmission parameters such as MCS, redundancy version orHARQ process number. A DCI consists of several field (e.g., bitfields/bitmaps) carrying different types of control information orcontrol parameters. The location of a certain parameter, and the numberof bits coding the respective parameter are known to the base stationtransmitting the DCI and the UE receiving the DCI.

However, such switching of the active BWP adds to the latency becausethe UE needs to decode the DCI and then start hardware tuning to the newactive BWP. This increased latency may work against the benefit ofdiversity since diversity is particularly useful if channelcharacteristics on different frequencies/BWPs are exploited in asufficiently small time span in which the channel characteristics do notchange significantly. Thus, due to an increase in latency, the gainsachieved by diversity might be limited.

It is a proposal of this disclosure to hop between configured BWPs forseries of transmissions (e.g., repetitions or retransmissions) in bothuplink and downlink, and exploit the frequency diversity by signaling ahopping pattern instead of just one active BWP. By signaling a BWPhopping pattern rather than a single BWP, the latency issue discussedabove is addressed. It is further proposed to utilize the existing BWPrelated bits in the DCI (e.g., the bits currently used for indicating asingle active BWP) rather than adding further bits and therebyincreasing the DCI overhead. This allows for keeping the DCI compact,which is desirable from a reliability point of view.

In general, the disclosure provides a communication device 460 forreceiving or transmitting a signal from/to a base station 410, and abase station 410 for transmitting or receiving a signal to/from acommunication device 460. Communication device 460 and base station 410are shown in FIG. 4. The disclosure further provides a method forreceiving or transmitting a signal from/to a base station to beperformed by a communication device, which is illustrated in FIG. 8A,transmitting or receiving a signal to/from a communication deviceillustrated in FIG. 8B. The apparatuses and methods provided will bedescribed in the following.

In general, the communication device 460 is adapted to receive ortransmit a signal in a wireless communication system in at least one ofa plurality of bandwidth parts, e.g., the communication device, inoperation, receives or transmits a signal (in this disclosure, devicesor units included in devices which are adapted to perform a given taskare said to, “in operation”, perform the given task). Therein, asmentioned above, a bandwidth part is formed by at least one physicalresource block. The communication device 460 comprises a transceiver 470which is adapted to receive, from the base station, a hopping pattern. Ahopping pattern is an order of the plurality of bandwidth parts by whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in a plurality oftransmission time intervals (TTIs). The communication device furthercomprises circuitry 480 which, in operation, evaluates the hoppingpattern indicator to determine the hopping pattern. The transceiver 470,in operation, further receives or transmits the signal in the pluralityof TTIs according to the hopping pattern.

The base station 410 is adapted to transmit or receive a signal to/froma communication device 460 in a wireless communication system in atleast one of a plurality of bandwidth parts, a bandwidth part beingformed by at least one physical resource block. The base station 410comprises circuitry 430 which, in operation, defines a hopping pattern,a hopping pattern being an order of the plurality of bandwidth parts bywhich the signal is to be transmitted or received in a plurality oftransmission time intervals, TTIs. The circuitry 430 further generateshopping pattern indicator. The base station 410 further comprises atransceiver 420 which, in operation, transmits the hopping patternindicator to the communication device 460. The transceiver, 420, inoperation, further transmits or receives the signal in the plurality ofTTIs according to the hopping pattern.

As shown in FIG. 4, base station 410 and communication device 460communicate in a wireless communication system over a wireless channel450 (e.g., a radio channel). The wireless communication system may be acommunication system in accordance with the technical specifications of5G, in particular a NR communication system. Accordingly, the basestation may be a “gNB” or “gNodeB” corresponding to the eNodeB or itsvariations (“HeNodeB”, “MeNodeB”) of LTE. The communication device 460may be a user device, user equipment (UE), or mobile station, such as amobile phone/smartphone, a tablet PC, or a laptop computer (the term“UE” or “user equipment” is generally used as an alternative tocommunication device). Moreover, in particular with respect to the usecases of URLLC; eMBB, and mMTC, the communication device may also be asensor device, a wearable device, or a connected vehicle, or acontroller of an automated machine in an industrial factory. Further, acommunication device 460 may be able to function as a relay between basestation 410 and another communication device (e.g., the disclosure isnot limited to communication “terminals” or user “terminals”).

In this disclosure, the term “transceiver” is used for hardware andsoftware components that allow the communication device 460, or,respectively base station 410 to transmit and/or receive radio signalsover a wireless channel 450. Accordingly, a transceiver corresponds to areceiver, a transmitter, or a combination of receiver and transmitter.Typically, a base station and a communication device are assumed to becapable of transmitting as well as receiving radio signals. However,particularly with respect to some applications of eMBB, mMTC and URLLCdepicted in FIG. 3 (smart home, smart city, industry automation, etc.),cases are conceivable in which a device, such as a sensor, only receivessignals. Moreover, the term “circuitry” includes processing circuitryformed by one or more processors or processing units, etc.

This disclosure is applicable to both uplink and downlink signaling. Onthe one hand, in the downlink case, the base station 410 transmits asignal to the communication device, which the communication device 460receives. Accordingly, the hopping pattern for downlink signaling is anorder of the bandwidth parts by which the base station 410 transmitsand, respectively, the communication device 460 receives the signal insubsequent TTIs. On the other hand, in the uplink case, thecommunication device 460 transmits a signal which the base station 410receives. Accordingly, the hopping pattern for uplink signaling is anorder of the bandwidth parts by which the communication device 460transmits and the base station 410 receives the signal in subsequentTTIs.

A hopping pattern is an order, e.g., a temporal order or sequence, ofbandwidth parts on which a signal is transmitted and, respectively,received over a series of TTIs. The signal comprises pluraltransmissions, such as repetitions or retransmissions of data or controlinformation (repetitions and retransmissions which will be explainedbelow in more detail). Accordingly, a hopping pattern assigns (maps)each of the plural TTIs in which the signal is transmitted/received toone of the BWPs which are configured for the respective user device andthe respective link (e.g., uplink or downlink). In other words, a BWPhopping pattern is a mapping between BWPs and TTIs, a BWP of a pluralityof BWPs being mapped to a one of plural TTIs. From a previous TTI to anext/subsequent TTI to which BWPs are assigned by the BWP hoppingpattern, the active BWP is switched from the previous BWP to the nextTTI. Subsequent TTIs in which the signal is transmitted according to theBWP hopping pattern need not be temporally consecutive, e.g., the TTIsof a BWP hopping pattern, e.g., the TTIs to which BWPs are mapped by thehopping pattern, need not be adjacent (e.g., consecutive) TTIs in thetime domain.

It has been mentioned that frequency hopping within an active BWP may beused for PUSCH and/or PUCCH. Accordingly, within a BWP, frequencyhopping maybe applied on PRB scale across symbols within a given TTI,e.g., when applying frequency hopping on a PRB scale, a hopping patternmay define a mapping between parts of a PRB and symbols or symbol groupswithin the TTI. For example, if there is a 7-symbol TTI, then the firstfour symbols of the TTI can have PUSCH and/or PUCCH in the first half ofthe PRBs and the last three symbols of the TTI can have PUSCH and/orPUSCH in the second half of the PRBs within an active BWP. However, theBWP hopping described in this disclosure may be performed alternativelyor in addition to the frequency hopping.

An example of a hopping pattern for downlink signaling is illustrated inFIG. 5, where the hopping pattern assigns a transmission of a signal infour subsequent TTIs to respective bandwidth parts. It is assumed thatfour BWPs (denoted BWP1, BWP2, BWP3, BWP4) are configured for thecommunication device which transmits or receives the signal. In thefirst of the four TTIs, the transmission is made in BWP1, in the TTI,the transmission is made in BWP4, in the third TTI, the transmission ismade in BWP1 again, and in the fourth of the TTIs, BWP3 is used. Thehopping pattern is specified by a hopping pattern indicator. As shown inthe figure, the hopping pattern indicator is transmitted, for example,in the first of the four TTIs. In particular, in the first TTI, thesignal includes both PDCCH and PDSCH, and the hopping pattern indicatoris included in the PDCCH (e.g., the PDCCH is included in the temporallyfirst two OFDM symbols of the TTI, followed by the PDSCH in theremaining symbols). In particular, in the example shown, the hoppingpattern indicator is included in a DCI carried by the PDCCH. In thefigure, this is symbolized by arrows pointing at the BWPs respectivelyused in the subsequent TTIs. The communication device knows thebandwidth parts on which it receives the signal in the respective TTIsfrom the first TTI. Accordingly, no BWP indication is required in theTTIs following the first TTI. Therefore, in the remaining TTIs, PDSCHsare respectively transmitted, but no PDCCH.

As shown in FIG. 5, there is a BWP hopping time (or BWP switching time)between two subsequent TTIs. Such a hopping time is not present in LTEsystems. However, a hopping time is required for the recalibration ofthe communication device (e.g., the hardware such as filters andoscillators) to another BWP. For example, if the bandwidth is 100 MHz,and the BWP to or from which the communication device is switched, thehopping time or switching time may be one or a few hundred microseconds.Depending, for example, on the resolution of the filters, differentcommunication devices/user equipments may allow for differenthopping/switching times. Accordingly, a base station may define thehopping time in dependent on the communication devices which arecurrently registered in the cell which is served by the base station.

For instance, the hopping pattern indicator can be a bitmap as shown inthe following Table 1.

TABLE 1 BWP hopping pattern indicator as 2 bitmap Index Bitmap BWPhopping pattern 0 00 BWP1, BWP4, BWP1, BWP4 1 01 BWP1, BWP4, BWP2, BWP32 10 BWP1, BWP3, BPW1, BWP4 3 11 BWP1, BWP3, BWP2, BWP4

As can be seen from Table 1, a particular hopping pattern does not needto include all configured BWPs (e.g., the hopping pattern with index 0does not include BWP2 and BWP3). Also, the same BWP may be mapped to atleast two of the plural TTIs (e.g., BWP1 in the hopping patterns withindices 0 and 2). Using a two bit hopping pattern indicator, as shown inTable 1, is beneficial because two bits are also required to indicate asingle active BWP out of four active BWPs configured for a communicationdevice, which is specified in 3GPP TS 38.212 V15.0.0 (2017-12) and shownin Table 2 (from TS 38.212, Table 7.3.1.1.2-1). In particular, a BWPindicator as shown in Table 2 is currently specified for DCI format 0_1used for scheduling of PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) in onecell as well as for the DCI format 1_1 used for the scheduling of PDSCHin one cell. As can be seen from the table, a one-bit indicator and atwo-bit indicator are specified, depending on the number of configuredBWPs (e.g., two or, in possible future specifications, more than two).The bit width of the field may be semi-statically signaled, for instanceusing the specified higher-layer parameter BandwidthPart-Config (for DCIformats 0_1 and 1_1, see, sections 7.3.1.1.2, and, respectively,7.3.1.2.2).

TABLE 2 Bandwidth part indicator for active BWP (TS 38.212 V15.0.0(2017-12)) Value of BWP Bandwidth indicator field part 1 bit 2 bits 0 00First bandwidth part configured by higher layers 1 01 Second bandwidthpart configured by higher layers 10 Third bandwidth part configured byhigher layers 11 Fourth bandwidth part configured by higher layers

Thus, if a hopping pattern indicator is signaled rather than a bandwidthpart indicator indicating an active BWP, a BWP hopping pattern can beindicated with the same number of bits as a single active BWP, e.g., noadditional bits for BWP signaling are required. Moreover, while hoppingpattern provides frequency diversity, an increase in latency due to BWPswitching, as discussed above, may be alleviated since hopping patterndecoding needs to be performed by the communication device only in thefirst TTI.

Because a two bit map hopping pattern indicator cannot express allpossible sequences of plural (e.g., two or four) different BWPs beingassigned as a hopping pattern to plural TTIs, respectively, a selectionof hopping patterns among all possible combinations needs to be made.Advantageously, in order to exploit the frequency diversity, BWPs to beused in two subsequent TTIs should be spaced sufficiently apart fromeach other, e.g., they should have a sufficiently large bandwidthinterval between each other.

Although FIG. 5 illustrates a case of a downlink transmission, thepresent disclosure is also applicable to using BWP hopping patterns foruplink transmissions. In particular, there may be respective differentparts of the frequency spectrum for downlink and uplink transmissions.Moreover, each for each BWP configured for DL there may be acorresponding BWP for uplink transmissions. Accordingly, the samehopping pattern indicator may be used either for a BWP on the downlinkor a corresponding hopping pattern on the uplink. Alternatively, theindices denoting BWP hopping patterns may specify different respectiveorderings of BWPs for uplink and downlink. Furthermore, BWPs configuresfor DL and BWPs configured for UL may respectively differ with respectto bandwidth or with respect to relative position in the frequencyspectrum.

As described above with reference to FIG. 5, the hopping patternindicator may, for example, be included in the DCI which is signaled viaPDCCH. The PDCCH is the physical channel (the set of physical resources)on which the DCI is carried. The DCI is obtained/decoded by acommunication device by blind decoding of the physical channel.Accordingly, in some embodiments, the circuitry 430 of the base station,in operation, generates a DCI including the hopping pattern indicator.The transceiver 420 of the base station transmits the DCI including thehopping pattern indicator, which the transceiver 470 of thecommunication device 460 receives.

As mentioned, reliability of the present disclosure is particularlyrelevant, for example, in the use case of URLLC. In the following, as anexemplary embodiment, details of a signaling mechanism for URLLC in NRare described. Therein, it is assumed that a DCI includes a field thatis related to bandwidth parts in general.

As a first step, a URLLC related DCI can be identified by the RNTI(Radio Network Temporary Identifier). Then, as a next step, thecommunication device 460 (e.g., the processing circuitry 480) interpretsthe BWP related field in the DCI. If the communication device 460 (thecircuitry 480) determines that the DCI is not a URLLC related DCI, thecircuitry 480 interprets the BWP related field as an indicator of anactive BWP, as shown in Table 2, e.g., the BWP related field carries abandwidth part indicator indicating an active BWP on which the signal isto be received or transmitted in at least one TTI. However, if thecommunication device 460 identifies that the DCI is related to URLLC,the communication device 460 interprets the BWP related bit fielddifferently. In particular, instead of signaling just the active BWP inthe next transmission, the BWP related field will be interpreted assignaling a BWP hopping pattern, for example as shown in Table 1 wherefour BWPs are configured, e.g., the BWP related field carries thehopping pattern indicator.

Although this example refers to a signaling mechanism for URLLC, thedescribed mechanism is not limited to URLLC. Alternatively, the BWPrelated field can be interpreted as a hopping pattern indicator if someother kind of DCI is identified, e.g., a DCI related to mMTC.

It is a benefit of the exemplary signaling mechanism described abovethat no additional BWP related signaling will be required, either in theDCI or in higher-layer signaling. However, this mechanism will alwaysrequire that a BWP hopping pattern (rather than a single active BWP) isapplied and signaled in URLLC or in the particular use case of thesignaling mechanism.

The present disclosure is not limited to identifying a kind of DCIbefore interpreting a BWP related bit field (in the DCI or in higherlayer signaling) as a BWP indicator. For instance, higherlayer-signaling may indicate how a DCI related bit field is to beinterpreted by the communication device 460. To provide a greatervariability of BWP usage, different variations of the signalingmechanism will be described in the further disclosure.

For instance a BWP hopping pattern can be applied to both PDCCH andPDSCH transmissions. The BWP hopping pattern can further be the same forPDCCH and PDSCH (for instance, if the signal includes, in each of theTTIs over which the hopping pattern is applied a PDCCH and a PDSCH).

In some embodiments, a new bit field is added in the higher layersignaling specifically to indicate if BWP hopping is applied or not. Inparticular, a hopping presence indicator is semi-statically signaled inaddition to a BWP related field (e.g., a BWP related field in accordancewith or similar to BWP related field in the above-described exemplarysignaling mechanism). The hopping presence indicator indicates whetheror not the signal is to be received or transmitted (by the base station410 and communication device 460, depending on whether the signal is anuplink or downlink signal) in accordance with the hopping pattern. Thehopping pattern indicator is signaled semi-statically in higher-layersignaling, in particular, in RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling asdefined, for instance, in the protocol specification 3GPP TS 38.331V0.0.1 (2017-03).

For instance, the hopping presence indicator may be signaled as aone-bit field in the RRC. A value “1” indicates that the signal is to betransmitted or received (UL or DL) in accordance with the hoppingpattern, e.g., in the case of a value “1”, the field in the DCI carriesthe hopping pattern indicator, as for example, shown in Table 1. A value“0” indicates that the signal is not to be transmitted or received inaccordance with the hopping pattern. In accordance with a value “0”, theBWP related field carries a BWP indicator (as shown in Table 2)indicating an active BWP on which the signal is to be received ortransmitted in at least one TTI (of course, the values of “0” and “1”are only examples, in particular, they are interchangeable).Accordingly, dependent on the value of the hopping presence indicator,the circuitry 480 of the communication device 460 interprets the BWPrelated bit field either as the hopping pattern indicator or as a BWPindicator.

For example, the BWP related field may be included in a DCI.Accordingly, the circuitry 430 base station 410 generates a DCIincluding the field, and transceiver 420 of the base station 410transmits the DCI to the communication device 460. The transceiver 470of the communication device 460 receives the DCI including the field,and the circuitry 480 evaluates/interprets the field. If the circuitry480 determines that the signal is to be received or transmitted inaccordance with the hopping pattern (hopping presence indicator value“1”), the field carries the hopping pattern indicator, and the basestation receives or transmits the signal in accordance with the hoppingpattern. Else, if the circuitry determines that the signal is to not tobe received or transmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, thefield in the DCI carries a BWP indicator.

In the latter example, the hopping presence indicator in the higherlayer signaling indicates whether or not BWP hopping in accordance witha BWP hopping pattern is applied, and the specific hopping pattern isindicated via DCI. With respect to the URLLC signaling mechanismdescribed above. This provides the benefit that BWP hopping does notneed to be applied for every transmitted and received signal, because aBWP hopping is only applied when the presence of BWP hopping isconfigured by the higher layer, e.g., when BWP hopping is switched on bymeans of the hopping presence indicator. Moreover, with respect to theURLLC, mechanism, the latter example is not limited to a particular usecase such as URLLC, and can therefore be applied to other scenarios.This is because the circuitry 480 of the communication device determineson the basis of the hopping presence indicator whether or not a BWPrelated field in the DCI is to be interpreted as a hopping patternindicator or as a BWP indicator, e.g., the same DCI type/format can beused for both BWP hopping and simple switching of an active BWP.

In some other exemplary embodiments, rather than signaling the BWPhopping pattern indicator in the DCI, all BWP hopping pattern relatedsignaling is configured semi-statically by higher layers. This meansthat the hoping pattern indicator is signaled semi-statically as well.The circuitry 480 of the communication device 460, in operation,evaluates the hopping presence indicator to determine whether or not thehopping pattern indicator is signaled. Accordingly, the hopping patterindicator is semi-statically signaled in the RRC signaling. Forinstance, the BWP hopping related bits in the RRC are ordered in such away that a bit field carrying the hopping presence indicator is followedby bit fields carrying the hopping pattern indicator. However, if thehopping presence indicator indicates that the hopping pattern indicatoris not signaled, e.g., that the signal is not to be received ortransmitted in accordance with a hopping pattern, the hopping patternindicator is not included in the higher-layer signaling.

For instance, if the hopping pattern is not signaled, no other BWPrelated bits are included in the RRC signaling, and the bits followingthe hopping presence indicator carry control information which is notrelated to BWP hopping (in this case, the RRC signaling may contain lessbits if no hopping pattern is signaled). Moreover, even if no hoppingpatter is signaled, neither in RRC signaling nor in the DCI, a BWPindicator can still be signaled in the DCI, e.g., switching of an activeBWP from one configured BWP to another configured BWP may still bepossible. Alternatively, if no BWP hopping pattern indicator is signaledand BWP switching apart from BWP hopping is not desired, any BWP relatedbits in the DCI may be omitted, and, accordingly, a shorter DCI istransmitted by the base station 410 and received by the communicationdevice. A short DCI may be beneficial for the reliability of the DCItransmission. This is because if fewer bits are included in the DCI, alower coding rate can be used for coding/decoding the DCI if the size ofthe control channel (PDCCH) is fixed.

Semi-statically signaling the BWP hopping pattern provides the benefitthat an increased number of BWP hopping patterns can be applied. Sincethe hopping pattern indicator is not transmitted/received in the DCI,the latency in decoding the DCI is not affected. Accordingly, the sizeof the hopping pattern indicator may be handled in a less restrictiveway, and more bits included in the bitmap may be used to provideindications of more hopping patterns. As a further alternative, ahopping pattern indicator may be divided among the higher layersignaling and the DCI, e.g., one or more bits in the higher-layersignaling indicate a group of hopping patterns from among configuredgroups, and one or two bits in the DCI indicate a hopping pattern fromamong the group indicated by the higher-layer signaling.

According to some further exemplary embodiments, the hopping patternindicator is included in the DCI. The transceiver 470 of thecommunication device 460, in operation, receives the DCI, and thecircuitry 480 of the communication device 460 determines, by evaluatingthe length of the DCI. For instance, the length of the DCI may depend onthe number of BWP related bits. For instance, if no BWP related bits arepresent neither switching of an active BWP nor BWP hopping is applied.Two BWP related bits indicate that a hopping pattern is to be appliedfor the transmission/reception of the signal, and the value of the twobits indicates the particular pattern to be used. Furthermore, theinterpretation of the two bits may again be dependent on higher-layersignaling, as discussed above, and the bits may be interpreted either asa hopping pattern indicator or as a BWP indicator. Alternatively, thenumber of BWP related bits may vary between 0, 1, and 2, wherein thepresence of indicates that a BWP hopping pattern indicator istransmitted in these two bits, and the presence of one bit indicatesthat switching of a BWP between two configured BWPs is indicated by theone bit.

If a signal is transmitted by the base station 410 is to be received bythe communication device 460 in a plurality of subsequent TTIs inaccordance with a hopping pattern, and the hopping pattern indicator isincluded in a DCI signaled via PDCCH in the initial TTI of the pluralityof subsequent TTIs (e.g., the first of the plural TTIs in temporalorder), it needs to be known to the communication device 460 by thestarting time of the initial TTI on which BWP the signal including thehopping pattern indicator is to be received. To this end, in someexemplary embodiments, the base station 410 generates and transmits aninitial bandwidth part indicator specifying a bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in the initial TTI. Thetransceiver of the communication device 460 receives the initial BWPindicator transmitted by the base station 410, and the circuitry 480 ofthe communication device 460 evaluates the initial bandwidth partindicator to determine the bandwidth part on which the signal is to bereceived in the initial TTI. The transceiver 470, in operation, furtherreceives or transmits the signal in the plurality of TTIs, wherein, inthe initial TTI, the signal is received or transmitted as specified bythe initial BWP indicator. However, in order to avoid additionalsignaling to indicate a BWP for a transmission in the initial BWP, BWPhopping patterns can be selected all of which assign the same BWP to theinitial TTI (for example, all hopping patterns in Table 1 begin with“BWP1”).

As mentioned, in some embodiments, the signal transmitted/received,either on the uplink or on the downlink, is a series (e.g., sequence) ofrepetitions or retransmissions, e.g., in the plurality of TTIs, the sameoriginal information (e.g., data or control information) is transmittedin plural transmissions, either by repeating the same (e.g., identical)information in the respective transmissions, or by transmittingdifferent versions (e.g., redundancy versions) of the data orinformation.

In particular, on the one hand the term “repetition” refers torepeatedly transmitting the same original information, andretransmission refers to transmitting different versions of the originaldata or control information, e.g., copies of the same information.Generally, repetitions are transmitted unrequested. That is, theinformation is repeated a predetermined number of times in differentTTIs, and it is not known at the transmitter side when (e.g., in whichTTI) the information is successfully decoded at the receiver side (theterms transmitter side and receiver side are used to denote thetransmitting or receiving entity of a particular transmission and referto base station and communication device, respectively, dependent on thedirection (uplink/downlink)).

The case of repetition is shown in FIG. 5 in an example of a downlinktransmission. It can be seen that in the initial TTI, a PDCCH istransmitted advancing the PDSCH. This initial PDCCH schedules thecomplete series of retransmissions, e.g., the first transmission in theinitial TTI and the subsequent repetitions in the subsequent TTIs.Moreover, the BWP hopping pattern is signaled via the DCI which isincluded in the initial PDCCH. Apart from this initial PDCCH, thebandwidth pattern used for the series of repetitions including theinitial transmission cannot be switched.

On the other hand, the term “retransmission” refers to a series oftransmissions of different redundancy versions, the different redundancyversions obtained by means of Forward Error Coding (FEC).Retransmissions may be handled using HARQ (Hybrid Automatic RepeatRequest). Retransmissions may be transmitted upon request, e.g., afterreceiving, a transmission and judging whether the data has been decodedsuccessfully, the receiving side replies by sending back a (positive)acknowledgement (ACK) if it was able to decode the information or, elsea negative acknowledgement (NACK) if it was unable to decode theinformation. In the case of an ACK, no retransmissions are required andsent, and in the case of a NACK, a retransmission of another redundancyversion is transmitted in response to the NACK. However, retransmissionsare not necessarily associated with a feedback mechanism such as HARQ.HARQ-less retransmissions, e.g., retransmissions without ACK/NACKsignaling, may also be used.

As mentioned, according to this disclosure, the TTIs of a BWP hoppingpattern, e.g., the TTIs to which BWPs are mapped by the hopping pattern,need not be adjacent TTIs in the time domain. For instance, if thesignal transmitted/received in accordance with the hopping pattern isHARQ process wherein the receiver side (base station 410 in UL or thecommunication device 460 in DL) signals an ACK or NACK, the ACK/NACK maybe a predefined number of TTIs (e.g., a number known to both transmitterside and receiver side) after the initial or previous transmission ofthe signal. Accordingly, in case of a NACK, the next retransmission issignaled the predetermined number of TTIs (or another predeterminednumber both known to receiver side and transmitter side) after signalingof the NACK.

The case of retransmission is shown in FIG. 6. Therein, in each of theTTIs used for the initial transmission and retransmissions, both PDCCHand PDSCH are transmitted. The PDCCH schedules the next respectiveretransmission in the next of the plurality of TTIs. However, a BWPhopping pattern is signaled only in the initial PDCCH in the first oneof the TTIs. Accordingly, no BWP related bits are required in the DCIsin the PDCCHs in the subsequent TTIs.

Furthermore, the present disclosure is not limited to using a singlehopping pattern and signaling a single hopping pattern indicator. Insome exemplary embodiments, at least two hopping pattern indicators aresignaled. Accordingly, the circuitry 430 of the base station 410, inoperation, generates a first hopping pattern indicator indicating afirst hopping pattern for a first signal and a second hopping patternindicator indicating a second hopping pattern for a second signal. Thetransceiver 420 of the base station, in operation, 410 transmits thefirst hopping pattern indicator and the second hopping pattern indicatorto the communication device 460, where they are received by thetransceiver 470. The circuitry 480 of the communication device 460, inoperation, in addition to evaluating the first hopping patternindicator, evaluates the second hopping pattern indicator to determinethe second hopping pattern. The transceiver 470 receives (DL) ortransmits (UL) the first signal according to the first hopping pattern,and receives or transmits the second signal according to the secondhopping pattern.

The above described embodiments regarding signaling of the hoppingpattern indicator and regarding the transmission/reception of the signalaccording to a hopping pattern may be applied to the first hoppingpattern and the second hopping pattern individually. The second hoppingpattern is different from the first hopping pattern, e.g., with respectto the BWPs and/or with respect to the TTIs. For example, the order ofBWPs (e.g., the temporal sequence by which the BWPs are mapped to TTIs)in the first hopping pattern may be different from the order of BWPs inthe second hopping pattern. Moreover at least one of the BWPs to whichTTIs are mapped in the second hopping pattern may be different from thebandwidth parts to which TTIs are mapped by the first hopping pattern.Also, the first hopping pattern may refer to different TTIs than thesecond TTI, either partially or completely. Furthermore, although thetwo hopping patterns may specify the same link/direction (uplink ordownlink), the first hopping pattern may as well specify a downlinktransmission and the second hopping pattern an uplink transmission.

Also, the first hopping pattern indicator and the second hopping patternindicator may be signaled on different levels. For instance, the firsthopping pattern indicator may be signaled semi-statically, and thesecond hopping pattern indicator may be signaled in a DCI.Alternatively, both hopping patterns are signaled semi-statically, orboth hopping pattern indicators are signaled in respective DCIs.

Moreover, the first hopping pattern and the second hopping pattern mayrelate respectively to different types of signals. In particular, forinstance, first signal may be data, and the second hopping pattern maybe control information, e.g., the first hopping pattern specifies aseries of PDSCH transmissions, and the second hopping pattern specifiesa series of PDCCH transmissions. In this disclosure, “signal” is ageneric term covers both data and control information. The term “data”is used to refer to data such as user data (including headers fromlayers higher than PHY) which is also referred to as “payload”.

In some particular examples, the control information which is signaledaccording to the second hopping pattern includes the first hoppingpattern indicator, e.g., the control information specifies the firsthopping pattern specifying data signaling. In particular, the controlinformation may include repetitions or retransmissions of the firsthopping pattern indicator.

An example is shown in FIG. 7 in which the second hopping patternspecifies repetitions (e.g., an initial transmission and at least oneretransmission) of the first hopping pattern. The first hopping patternspecifies an order of a data signal signaled on the PDSCH (in thefigure, the second hopping pattern, BWP1->BWP4->BWP1->BWP3 begins withthe second leftmost TTI shown). The hopping pattern for the PDSCH signalis included in DCIs signaled in the PDCCH in the leftmost and secondleftmost TTI shown in the figure, e.g., the hopping pattern istransmitted in an initial transmission of PDCCH in an initial TTI and isrepeated or retransmitted (repetition of the bits forming the hoppingpattern indicator or of the complete PDCCH) in a subsequent TTI using ahopping pattern BWP4->BWP1. The BWP hopping pattern for the initialtransmission of PDCCH and its repetition(s) is semi-staticallyconfigured by higher layers and the BWP hopping pattern for PDSCHretransmission or repetition is dynamically signaled by the DCI in theinitial PDCCH. The BWP hopping pattern (BWP4->BWP1) between the initialPDCCH transmission and retransmission is semi-statically configured.These PDCCH are combined, if necessary (e.g., HARQ combined) and signalthe BWP hopping pattern via DCI for next PDSCH transmissions andcorresponding repetitions (or retransmissions). Such combined use ofdifferent hopping patterns may be beneficial as the reliability isenhanced with respect to different channels such as a control channeland a data channel.

In the example described above with reference to FIG. 7, two hoppingpatterns are specified for two processes which are interrelated witheach other (e.g., data signaling and control signaling of controlinformation associated with the data signaling). However, two or hoppingpatterns may also define processes of the same communication device thatare independent of each other, such as different HARQ processes signalssignaled on the PDSCH. In particular, a first signal may betransmitted/received in accordance with a first BWP hopping pattern anda second signal may be received in accordance with a second hoppingpattern, as described above. The first signal and the second signal maybe respective sequences of retransmissions or repetitions. The firstsignal and the second signal may both be retransmissions, or the firstand the second signal may both be repetitions, or alternatively, onesignal may be a series of repetitions and the other one a series ofrepetitions.

Although some of the above embodiments relate to URLLC and/or toretransmissions or repetitions, the present disclosure is not limitedthereto, and the proposed techniques are applicable to possible futurecases as well. Some of these use cases may be related to mMTC. Machinecommunication may require configuration of very narrow bandwidth partsand highly energy efficient devices. In such use cases the applicationof BWP hopping patterns would be particularly beneficial.

Moreover, a hopping pattern may comprise different BWPs havingrespectively different bandwidths. For instance, for the initialtransmission of the signal, a BWP with a wider bandwidth may be usedthan the bandwidth(s) of the BWP(s) used for the subsequenttransmissions. This may facilitate reducing the number of requiredrepetitions or retransmissions in processes such as HARQ processes. Onthe other hand the narrower BWPs may also be used for the more previoustransmissions, in order to require a larger bandwidth for a process onlyin the case that several retransmissions or repetitions are needed.Moreover, multiple communication processes, possibly including differentcommunication types and/or plural communication devices may be performedusing a single BWP within a TTI. BWP hopping may be used to facilitateload balancing between different communication processes.

According to current NR specifications, a single active BWP isconfigured for a communication device. However, future releases of NRspecifications may allow for plural active BWPs. Accordingly, ifadditional bits are already defined for BWP signaling, this also widenspossibilities to use these bits for the signaling of BWP hopping withoutgenerating additional overhead due to the BWP hopping patterns.

As mentioned, in some exemplary embodiments, different hopping patternsmay be applied to different channels, such as data channel (PDSCH) andcontrol channel (PDCCH). This application of different hopping patternsis not limited to the case shown in FIG. 7 where, in the second TTI fromthe left, the same BWP carries both the PDCCH signal and the PDSCHsignal. If multiple active BWPs are configured, the communicationprocesses on the different channels may also be mapped onto respectivelydifferent BWPs in the same TTI. Moreover, multiple HARQ processes(possible belonging to the same channel) may apply different hoppingpatterns using different BWPs within one or plural TTIs.

Corresponding to the above described base station and transmitter andtheir embodiments are method for a base station and a method for acommunication device. The methods are illustrated in FIG. 8A for adownlink transmission and in FIG. 8B for an uplink transmission.

The method for transmitting (downlink) or receiving (uplink) a signalto/from a communication device in a wireless communication system in atleast one of a plurality of BWPs is shown in FIG. 8A (downlink) and FIG.8B (uplink) respectively on the left-hand side and includes thefollowing steps to be performed by a base station. In step S810, ahopping pattern is defined. In step S820, a hopping pattern indicatorspecifying the hopping pattern is generated. In step S830, the hoppingpattern indicator is transmitted to the communication device. In thedownlink method, in step S850, the signal is transmitted to thecommunication device in accordance with the hopping pattern. In theuplink case, in step S865, the signal transmitted by the communicationdevice is received by the base station.

The method for receiving (downlink) or transmitting (uplink) a hoppingpattern from/to a base station in a wireless communication system in atleast one of a plurality of bandwidth parts is shown on the right handside of FIG. 8A (downlink) and, respectively, FIG. 8B. The methodincludes the following steps to be performed by a communication device.In step S840, a hopping pattern indicator (which has been transmitted bythe base station in step S830 and) which specifies a hopping pattern isreceived. Then, in step S845, the hopping pattern indicator is evaluatedto determine the hopping pattern according to which a signal is to bereceived (downlink) or transmitted (uplink). In the downlink method, instep S860, the signal (which is transmitted by the base station in stepS850) is received according to the hopping pattern. In the uplinkmethod, in step S855, the signal is transmitted to the base station inaccordance with the hopping pattern.

The present disclosure can be realized by software, hardware, orsoftware in cooperation with hardware. Each functional block used in thedescription of each embodiment described above can be partly or entirelyrealized by an LSI such as an integrated circuit, and each processdescribed in the each embodiment may be controlled partly or entirely bythe same LSI or a combination of LSIs. The LSI may be individuallyformed as chips, or one chip may be formed so as to include a part orall of the functional blocks. The LSI may include a data input andoutput coupled thereto. The LSI here may be referred to as an IC, asystem LSI, a super LSI, or an ultra LSI depending on a difference inthe degree of integration. However, the technique of implementing anintegrated circuit is not limited to the LSI and may be realized byusing a dedicated circuit, a general-purpose processor, or aspecial-purpose processor. In addition, a FPGA (Field Programmable GateArray) that can be programmed after the manufacture of the LSI or areconfigurable processor in which the connections and the settings ofcircuit cells disposed inside the LSI can be reconfigured may be used.The present disclosure can be realized as digital processing or analogueprocessing. If future integrated circuit technology replaces LSIs as aresult of the advancement of semiconductor technology or otherderivative technology, the functional blocks could be integrated usingthe future integrated circuit technology. Biotechnology can also beapplied.

In an embodiment, the disclosure provides a communication device forreceiving or transmitting a signal from/to a base station in a wirelesscommunication system in at least one of a plurality of bandwidth parts,a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physical resource block.The communication device comprises a transceiver which, in operation,receives, from the base station, a hopping pattern indicator specifyinga hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an order of the plurality ofbandwidth parts by which the signal is to be received or transmitted ina plurality of transmission time intervals, TTIs. The communicationdevice further includes circuitry which, in operation, evaluates thehopping pattern indicator to determine the hopping pattern. Thetransceiver, in operation, further receives or transmits the signal inthe plurality of TTIs according to the hopping pattern.

For example, the transceiver receives downlink control information, DCI,including the hopping pattern indicator.

In some embodiments, the transceiver, in operation, further receives,from the base station, a hopping presence indicator indicating whetheror not the signal is to be received or transmitted in accordance withthe hopping pattern, the hopping presence indicator beingsemi-statically signaled, and the circuitry, in operation, furtherevaluates the hopping presence indicator to determine whether or not thesignal is to be received or transmitted according to the hoppingpattern.

For instance, the transceiver, in operation, receives downlink controlinformation, DCI, including a field, and if the circuitry determinesthat the signal is to be received or transmitted in accordance with thehopping pattern, the field carries the hopping pattern indicator, elseif the circuitry determines that the signal is not to be received ortransmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, the field carries abandwidth part indicator indicating an active bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in least one TTI.

In some embodiments, the transceiver, in operation, receives downlinkcontrol information, DCI, including the hopping pattern indicator, andthe circuitry, in operation, evaluates the length of the DCI todetermine whether or not the hopping pattern indicator is signaled.

In some exemplary embodiments, the hopping pattern indicator issemi-statically signaled, and the circuitry, in operation, evaluates thehopping presence indicator to determine whether or not the hoppingpattern indicator is signaled.

In some embodiments, the transceiver, in operation, further receives aninitial bandwidth part indicator, the initial bandwidth part indicatorbeing semi-statically signaled and specifying a bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in the initial TTI of theplurality of TTIs. The circuitry, in operation, further evaluates theinitial bandwidth part indicator to determine the bandwidth part onwhich the signal is to be received in the initial TTI. Further, thetransceiver, in operation, receives or transmits the signal in theinitial TTI in the bandwidth part specified by the initial bandwidthpart indicator.

In some exemplary embodiments, the signal received or transmitted in theplurality of TTIs is a sequence of repetitions or retransmissions.

Moreover, in some embodiments, the hopping pattern indicator receivedfrom the base station is a first hopping pattern indicator indicating afirst hopping pattern for a first signal. The transceiver, in operation,further receives, from the base station, a second hopping patternindicator specifying a second hopping pattern for a second signal, thesecond hopping pattern being different from the first hopping pattern.The circuitry, in operation, further evaluates the second hoppingpattern indicator to determine the second hopping pattern. Thetransceiver, in operation, further receives or transmits the secondsignal according to the second hopping pattern.

For instance, the first signal is data and the second signal is controlinformation.

In some particular examples, the control information (second signal)includes repetitions of the first hopping pattern indicator.

Further, for instance, the first and the second signal are respectivesequences of transmissions or retransmissions.

In an embodiment, the disclosure provides a base station fortransmitting or receiving a signal to/from a communication device in awireless communication system in at least one of a plurality ofbandwidth parts, a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physicalresource block. The base station comprises circuitry which, inoperation, defines a hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an orderof the plurality of bandwidth parts by which the signal is to betransmitted or received in a plurality of transmission time intervals,TTIs, and generates a hopping pattern indicator specifying the hoppingpattern. The base station further comprises a transceiver which, inoperation, transmits the hopping pattern indicator to the communicationdevice and transmits or receives the signal in the plurality of TTIsaccording to the hopping pattern.

For example, the transceiver transmits downlink control information,DCI, including the hopping pattern indicator.

In some embodiments, the circuitry, in operation, further generates ahopping presence indicator indicating whether or not the signal is to bereceived or transmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, and thetransceiver, in operation, transmits the hopping presence indicator tothe communication device. The hopping presence indicator issemi-statically signaled.

For instance, the transceiver, in operation, transmits downlink controlinformation, DCI, including a field, and if the signal is to be receivedor transmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, the field carriesthe hopping pattern indicator, else if signal is not to be received ortransmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, the field carries abandwidth part indicator indicating an active bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in least one TTI.

In some embodiments, the circuitry, in operation, generates downlinkcontrol information, DCI including the hopping pattern indicator, thelength of the DCI indicating determine whether or not the hoppingpattern indicator is signaled.

In some embodiments, the hopping pattern indicator is semi-staticallysignaled, and the hopping presence indicator determines whether or notthe hopping pattern indicator is signaled.

In some embodiments, the circuitry, in operation, further generates aninitial bandwidth part indicator specifying a bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in the initial TTI of theplurality of TTIs. The transceiver, in operation, further transmits theinitial bandwidth part indicator to the communication device, theinitial bandwidth part indicator being semi-statically signaled.Further, the transceiver, in operation, receives or transmits the signalin the initial TTI in the bandwidth part specified by the initialbandwidth part indicator.

In some exemplary embodiments, the signal received or transmitted in theplurality of TTIs is a sequence of repetitions or retransmissions.

Moreover, in some embodiments, the hopping pattern indicator transmittedto the communication device is a first hopping pattern indicatorindicating a first hopping pattern for a first signal. The circuitry, inoperation, further generates a second hopping pattern indicatorspecifying a second hopping pattern for a second signal, the secondhopping pattern being different from the first hopping pattern. Thetransceiver, in operation, further transmits the second hopping patternindicator to the communication device. The transceiver, in operation,further receives or transmits the second signal according to the secondhopping pattern.

For instance, the first signal is data and the second signal is controlinformation.

In some particular examples, the control information (second signal)includes repetitions of the first hopping pattern indicator.

Further, for instance, the first and the second signal are respectivesequences of transmissions or retransmissions.

In an embodiment, the disclosure provides a method for receiving ortransmitting a signal from/to a base station in a wireless communicationsystem in at least one of a plurality of bandwidth parts, a bandwidthpart being formed by at least one physical resource block. The methodcomprises the following steps to be performed by a communication device:receiving, from the base station, a hopping pattern indicator specifyinga hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an order of the plurality ofbandwidth parts by which the signal is to be received or transmitted ina plurality of transmission time intervals, TTIs; evaluating the hoppingpattern indicator to determine the hopping pattern; and receiving ortransmitting the signal in the plurality of TTIs according to thehopping pattern.

In an embodiment, a method is provided for transmitting or receiving asignal to/from a communication device in a wireless communication systemin at least one of a plurality of bandwidth parts, a bandwidth partbeing formed by at least one physical resource block. The methodcomprises the following steps to be performed by a base station:defining a hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an order of theplurality of bandwidth parts by which the signal is to be transmitted orreceived in a plurality of transmission time intervals; generating ahopping pattern indicator specifying the hopping pattern; transmittingthe hopping pattern indicator to the communication device; andtransmitting or receiving the signal in the plurality of TTIs accordingto the hopping pattern.

In an embodiment, provided is a computer readable medium storingexecutable instructions. The instructions, when executed, cause acommunication device to perform the steps of the above method fortransmitting or receiving a signal to/from a base station.

In an embodiment, provided is a computer readable medium storingexecutable instructions. The instructions, when executed, cause a basestation to perform the steps of the above method for transmitting orreceiving a signal to/from a communication device.

Summarizing, the disclosure relates to a communication device forreceiving or transmitting a signal from/to a base station in a wirelesscommunication system in at least one of a plurality of bandwidth parts,a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physical resource block, abase station, and respective methods for a communication device and abase station. The communication device comprises a transceiver which, inoperation, receives, from the base station, a hopping pattern indicatorspecifying a hopping pattern, a hopping pattern being an order of theplurality of bandwidth parts by which the signal is to be received ortransmitted in a plurality of transmission time intervals, TTIs. Thecommunication device further comprises circuitry which, in operation,evaluates the hopping pattern indicator to determine the hoppingpattern. The transceiver, in operation, further receives or transmitsthe signal in the plurality of TTIs according to the hopping pattern.

The various embodiments described above can be combined to providefurther embodiments. All of the U.S. patents, U.S. patent applicationpublications, U.S. patent applications, foreign patents, foreign patentapplications and non-patent publications referred to in thisspecification and/or listed in the Application Data Sheet areincorporated herein by reference, in their entirety. Aspects of theembodiments can be modified, if necessary to employ concepts of thevarious patents, applications and publications to provide yet furtherembodiments.

These and other changes can be made to the embodiments in light of theabove-detailed description. In general, in the following claims, theterms used should not be construed to limit the claims to the specificembodiments disclosed in the specification and the claims, but should beconstrued to include all possible embodiments along with the full scopeof equivalents to which such claims are entitled. Accordingly, theclaims are not limited by the disclosure.

1. An integrated circuit configured to operate a communication device,the integrated circuit comprising: transceiver circuitry, which, inoperation, receives, from a base station, downlink control information,DCI, including a hopping pattern indicator, a hopping pattern being anorder of a plurality of bandwidth parts by which a signal is to bereceived or transmitted in a plurality of transmission time intervals,TTIs, a bandwidth part being formed by at least one physical resourceblock; and control circuitry which, in operation, determines whether thehopping pattern indicator is signaled based on a length of the DCI, anddetermines a hopping pattern to be applied based on the hopping patternindicator; wherein the transceiver circuitry, in operation, furtherreceives or transmits the signal in the plurality of TTIs according tothe determined hopping pattern.
 2. The integrated circuit according toclaim 1, wherein the transceiver circuitry receives downlink controlinformation, DCI, including the hopping pattern indicator.
 3. Theintegrated circuit according to claim 1 wherein the transceivercircuitry, in operation, further receives, from the base station, ahopping presence indicator indicating whether or not the signal is to bereceived or transmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, thehopping presence indicator being semi-statically signaled, and thecontrol circuitry, in operation, evaluates the hopping presenceindicator to determine whether or not the signal is to be received ortransmitted according to the hopping pattern.
 4. The integrated circuitaccording to claim 3, wherein, the transceiver circuitry, in operation,receives downlink control information, DCI, including a field, and ifthe circuitry determines that the signal is to be received ortransmitted in accordance with the hopping pattern, the field carriesthe hopping pattern indicator, else if the control circuitry determinesthat the signal is not to be received or transmitted in accordance withthe hopping pattern, the field carries a bandwidth part indicatorindicating an active bandwidth part on which the signal is to bereceived or transmitted in least one TTI.
 5. The integrated circuitaccording to claim 3, the hopping pattern indicator beingsemi-statically signaled, wherein the circuitry, in operation, evaluatesthe hopping presence indicator to determine whether or not the hoppingpattern indicator is signaled.
 6. The integrated circuit according toclaim 1, wherein the transceiver circuitry, in operation, receives aninitial bandwidth part indicator, the initial bandwidth part indicatorbeing semi-statically signaled and specifying a bandwidth part on whichthe signal is to be received or transmitted in the initial TTI of theplurality of TTIs, the control circuitry, in operation, evaluates theinitial bandwidth part indicator to determine the bandwidth part onwhich the signal is to be received in the initial TTI, and thetransceiver circuitry, in operation, receives or transmits the signal inthe initial TTI in the bandwidth part specified by the initial bandwidthpart indicator.
 7. The integrated circuit according to claim 1, thesignal received or transmitted in the plurality of TTIs being a sequenceof repetitions or retransmissions.
 8. The integrated circuit accordingto claim 1, the hopping pattern indicator received from the base stationbeing a first hopping pattern indicator indicating a first hoppingpattern for a first signal, wherein the transceiver circuitry, inoperation, receives, from the base station, a second hopping patternindicator specifying a second hopping pattern for a second signal, thesecond hopping pattern being different from the first hopping pattern,the control circuitry, in operation, evaluates the second hoppingpattern indicator to determine the second hopping pattern, and thetransceiver circuitry, in operation, receives or transmits the secondsignal according to the second hopping pattern.
 9. The integratedcircuit according to claim 8, the first signal being data and the secondsignal being control information.
 10. The integrated circuit accordingto claim 9, the control information including repetitions of the firsthopping pattern indicator.
 11. The integrated circuit according to claim8, the first and the second signal being respective sequences oftransmissions or retransmissions.